Sidekick no more!
Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures are planning a spin-off movie featuring Spider-Man MCU Trilogy Jacob Batalon’s character “Ned Leeds”.
Batalon has been playing the character for three feature films as Leeds, Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s best friend and de-facto right-hand man. Due to the character’s and his “Lola’s” popularity in the Philippines, Marvel and Sony are in talks regarding Leed’s character’s development into a super-hero of his own.
Filipinos are known to he avid fans of the MCU and the producers want to create a Filipino super-hero to cater to the massive market.
The film will feature Batalon, among other actors of Filipino descent (almost exclusively, a la the Chinese-themed “Shang-Chi and the Ten Rings). No news yet regarding the actual actors who will appear in the movie.
Not much details were revealed regarding the story but some sources say that Batalon’s character, will become a Spider-Man himself but some tweaks were done to fit Batalon’s Filipino heritage and culture.
Instead of gaining powers from a radioactive black widow bite, Batalon will get his abilities after a common house spider (Gagambang Tumatalon in Filipino).
Thr current working title of the film is “GagambaTalon”. A play on the Filipino name of the common house spider and the actor’s last name.
This article will updated as soon as new information are at hand.